It is often believed that in almost all species a male leads the group, but the truth is that power relations between males and females are not so clear, and that in most species neither of the two sexes clearly dominates the other.
In fact, evolutionary factors are those that determine power and They dominate when they physically overcome females, while they look for different ways to impose themselves on males, at least between Primates.
This is the main conclusion of a study led by researchers from the University of Montpellier, the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology of Leipzig and the German Primates Center of Gontinga whose details have been published this Monday in the magazine PNAS.
The study has also discovered that Asymmetries of power between males and females vary in primates societies.
According to the study, which has gathered detailed observations of the behavior between males and females of 253 populations of 121 species of primates, it is rare that there is a clear domain of one of the sexes.
The battle of the sexes
The review of the available data on aggressiveness between sexes revealed that disputes between males and females are surprisingly common: Almost half of the fights in social groups were between a male and a female.
Until now, investigations had focused on fights between same -sex individuals, because existing theories about social evolution assume that males and females compete for different resources.
The study has analyzed the result of disputes between individuals of the opposite sex: do males win more? Is it the same in all species?
For a long time it was assumed that power tends to be biased towards males in primates, and that the few emblematic species dominated by females, such as ringed tail lemurs or bonobos, represented an exception that required a special explanation.
But the new study reveals the complexity and variability of gender biases in dominance relations in primates societies.
In your sample, Only a clear mastery of males, which earn more than 90% of disputes with females, is appreciated in 251 populations with quantitative data.
On the contrary, there is a clear female domain in 16 populations, which leaves 70% of populations with moderate or non -existent genre biases in power.
Implications for gender relationships
The research team tested five hypotheses to explain gender biases in domain relationships and discovered that domain with female bias is associated with several key factors.
The female power is mainly observed in species in which females are monogamous, similar to that of males or that feed mainly in treessituations in which females have more options when deciding whether or not they look up with a concrete male.
In addition, female domain prevails in situations in which females face intense competition for resources, such as solitary or couple species, as well as when conflicts between males and females are less risky for their dependent young, for example, because mothers leave their young in a safe place when they feed instead of taking them with them.
On the contrary, The male domain prevails in the terrestrial species, where males have bodies or weapons larger than females and where males look away with several females.
“It is essential to point out that, while primates obtain power through physical force and coercion, The empowerment of females is based on alternative roads, such as reproductive strategies to obtain control over mating”, Says Elise Huchard, from the University of Montpellier.
The finding that females are almost as likely to dominate males as vice versa, and that most primates societies do not have clear sexual biases in power, challenges traditional visions about the natural origins of gender roles.
Consequently, the arguments presented by human patriarchy as a legacy of primates seem wrong, and gender relations should be considered in relation to their social and ecological contexts.